Travel industry adds jobs in spite of government shutdown

Travel industry adds jobs in spite of government shutdown

Because of its impact on tourism ? it cost the United States an?estimated $152 million per day?in economic output due to lost travel-related activity ? the government shutdown could have easily hindered travel industry growth. Instead, the travel industry actually added 16,000 jobs in October and contributed more than 6 percent of October?s total non-farm employment gains, according to the U.S. Travel Association, which last week released an analysis of the U.S. Department of Labor?s October jobs report.

?This good news is a pleasant surprise ? I had been concerned that the federal shutdown would interrupt the terrific progress the industry has made in adding jobs since the economic recovery started in 2010. The fact that the travel sector so impressively withstood the budget tomfoolery in Washington ? which shut down national parks and other attractions for half the month of October ? is a testament to the vibrancy and resiliency of our industry,? U.S. Travel Association Senior Vice President for Research and Economics David Huether said in a statement.

According to Huether, the travel industry so far this year has added 18 percent more jobs compared to the first 10 month of last year, while the rest of the economy has added just 7 percent more jobs.

?The travel industry has now made up 95 percent of the jobs lost during the great recession, while the rest of the economy has only made up 82 percent of jobs lost,? Huether said. ?The reason for this is that the travel industry is unique. Travel is internationally engaged, is labor-intensive and is largely immune to offshore outsourcing. With these ingredients, travel has added jobs at a 6 percent faster rate than the rest of the economy, creating 446,000 jobs since early 2010.?

Across all sectors, the U.S. economy added 12,000 private sector jobs in October. The unemployment rate, which fell in September to 7.2 percent, remains essentially unchanged at 7.3 percent.